Saturday, March 29, 2008

The time of year has come again when we can eat out of the garden almost daily. Today I had asparagus and radishes. I harvested onions yesterday and will be making a fennel and onion salad to marinate in the fridge over night. The Swiss chard is huge and we need to start harvesting it again. I still have a little cabbage left for slaw and maybe cabbage rolls. I am not sure if the monkeys will eat cabbage rolls. I have mustard and spinach that are ready to eat. The snow peas are still little, but with a bit more warm weather, they will take off. the lettuce is tiny, but needs to be thinned. We will make salads out of the thinned out tiny plants.

We grow cool weather vegetables all winter and rotate out to warm season plants around the first of May. In about four weeks the tomatoes, peppers, squash, corn, okra, beans, and cucumbers will go in. In the meantime the onions and garlic will all be pulled, cleaned, and let to dry out before I store them. I still need to start basil.

Fennel and onion salad.

Two medium sized onions sliced in thin rings

1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon or lime juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, store in a covered container and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Serve cold.

We have to eat the fennel now before the black swallowtail butterflies show up. Their babies eat our fennel and dill. I will post pictures when they show up.